Running head: FILM REVIEW 1 Film Review: Drumline Elizabeth ...

Running head: FILM REVIEW

1 Film Review: Drumline Elizabeth Thornton

Michigan State University


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Inroduction The phrase “one band, one sound” quickly spread across every marching band field in America when the box office smash Drumline hit theaters in 2002. The film popularized marching band in the same way that cheerleading started to garner more respect as a sport after the wildly popular movie Bring It On debuted in theaters just two years prior. Brief Summary of Film Starring Nick Cannon and Orlando Jones, the film is about Devon (Cannon), a snare drum player from Harlem who gets recruited by the director, Dr. Lee (Jones), to play in one of the best southern university marching bands in the country, Atlanta A & T, a fictional university. Upon earning one of the top spots on the line, Devon proves to the section leader Sean, who also happens to be his nemesis that he can perform at the same level as him. Sean, played by Leonard Roberts, has put 3 years of hard work in to building the line and is frustrated with Devon for coming in and disrupting the environment. When Sean learns that Devon lied about being able to read music, he calls him out in front of the entire band. Devon is forced to change his attitude and take a percussion methods course in order to learn how to read music, despite the fact that he is the most talented drummer on the line. Not long after, Devon gets kicked out of the band when he picks a fight with a drummer from a different school during the homecoming game. Across town at Morris Brown College, their rival band brings the level of competition up when they choose to play popular music that is often heard on the radio in exchange for fame, whereas Dr. Lee makes the decision that A&T will not


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sink to their level and play crowd pleasers at the expense of the ensemble’s musicianship. (Drumline, 2002) Meanwhile, Devon and Sean find a way to resolve their differences through their shared passion for music and the drive to be the best. They collaborate and write cadences for the band to use at the annual BET Classic, which is a battle of the bands competition, where A & T hopes to reclaim the title after losing to Morris Brown over the past few years. Through the joint efforts of Devon and Sean with the support of Dr. Lee, A & T tie for first place with Morris Brown and are challenged to a drumline showdown to determine the winner of the classic. Dr. Lee then gives Devon the go ahead to harness up and play with the line, which ends up working in their favor and A & T wins the competition. Critique Known as the film that brought instant popularity to marching band, Drumline depicts the show style performance that many southern universities exemplify today. Giving the film strength was the fairly well written screenplay, making it possible to serve more than one audience. As a movie aimed at teenagers, it had the quintessential side love story, rivalry between characters, and a victorious underdog ending. All the while, the film adhered to the high standards of the marching band audience by not only playing up the performance scenes, but using real musicians and university marching bands as well. One of the few weaknesses of the film, which may have only been noticed through the lens of a real band person, was the exaggerated and magnified performance at the BET Classic by the Morris Brown band. Their performance, which featured popular hip‐hop artist Pete Pablo, could be seen as unrealistic in the eyes of a marching band. In other terms, it would


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be like having a professional celebrity athlete step in and play with a college or university athletic team during a playoff game. The BET Classic Battle of the Bands event overall, however, did stay true to a similar event that southern college and university marching bands participate in, which is the Honda Battle of the Bands, featuring historically black colleges and universities throughout the south. Analysis of Student Culture According to George Kuh and Elizabeth Whitt, “student subcultures are created through interactions with peers, mediated to a certain extent by institutional structures and processes” (1988, p. 7). The interactions between the students on the drumline and their relationship with the director and individuals within marching bands at other institutions helped to create the subculture depicted in the film. Kuh and Whitt go on to create a list of components that make up a culture, ranging from ceremony and ritual to physical setting and the language (1988, p. 34 – 35). Many of these distinctions can be used in order to better understand the student culture depicted in the film, the drumline in particular is rich in many of these components, such as language, gestures, and artifacts, to name a few. The language and gestures that are used by the section leader, Sean, for example, gives indication that the drumline even is its own subculture within the culture of the band overall. Whether intentionally or not, the movie highlighted the student culture of marching bands on college campuses nationwide and how they are perceived. In order to understand and interpret the subculture of college marching bands, and the drumline section in particular, we must first start with the institution itself.


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Unfortunately, the film used a fictional university as the main setting for the culture making it slightly more difficult to categorize the environment in any particular way. There are certain aspects of Atlanta A & T however, that likely exist at real institutions and as a result, have an effect on the marching band subculture. For example, like any other marching band in the United States, the film clearly highlighted and emphasized the importance of the marching band’s performance through the lens of the administration, alumni, and donors. In the film, the university president continually put pressure on Dr. Lee to perform popular music in order to please the alumni and donors, indicating that his job as band director would be at stake otherwise (Drumline, 2002). For the ensemble, this can create tension and stress when it comes to performance and attitude by the students. According to George Kuh and Elizabeth Whitt, “an institutions culture reflects to some degree the values and accepted practices of the host society” (1988, p. 7). In this case, the institution can be more narrowly viewed as the marching band itself and the host society would be the university administrators, alumni, donors, and any other forces external to the ensemble. Therefore, the values and expectations of the marching band differed between the director, and the administrators and alumni in the film.

In addition to the fact that the subculture was being shaped partly by the

external forces of the administration and alumni, the film also highlighted the marching band’s culture through the lens of peers, in this case, the Morris Brown College band in particular. The director of the Morris Brown band noticed Devon’s talent and even tried to sway him into transferring, which he didn’t. Devon stayed


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loyal to A & T and the drumline because he shared the same values and beliefs of the band and the drumline, of the subculture. One of the turning points in the film is when Devon and Sean are able to move past their differences and work together in order to produce outstanding cadences for the upcoming battle of the bands competition (Drumline, 2002). In marching band rehearsal and preparation is everything, as depicted in the film, and it is fueled by the desire to be the best, which in this case meant outperforming Morris Brown.

Another very important illustration of the student subculture in the

marching band that the film touched on was the way that students associated with Greek organizations. Although it was not played up as one of the most important storylines within the film, it clearly speaks to the cultural side of how students in the band and the drumline relate to one another. Ernest, one of the bass drum players in the film, rushed the fraternity Kappa Kappa Psi, which is an honorary college band fraternity, depicted accurately in the film. Leila, the love interest of Devon, is also a member of a Greek organization, Sigma Phi Alpha, which is fictional. Their display of Greek letters through clothing they wore, the fictitious ritual performed, and the traditional stepping at a party are all examples of how the students bonded with one another and defined themselves as members of the band. Conclusion According to Kuh and Whitt, “culture is viewed as an interpretive framework for understanding and appreciating events and actions in colleges and universities rather than as a mechanism to influence or control behavior” (1988, p. 20). The film Drumline can be used as a lens through which to view and understand the

Running head: FILM REVIEW framework of college and university marching bands in the United States, and in particular, those in the south. While the film certainly embellished certain storylines likely for the sake of Hollywood entertaining pleasure, such as the celebrity appearances during the battle of the bands performance, overall it accurately depicted the subculture of college drumlines and marching bands through both the music performances, relationships between the students and director and administration, and student Greek organizations.

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8 References

Kuh, George D. & Whitt, Elizabeth J. (1988). The invisible tapestry: Culture in American colleges and universities. ASHE‐ERIC Higher Education, Report No. 1 Finerman, Wendy (Producer), & Stone, Charles III (Director). (2002). Drumline (DVD). USA: Twentieth Century Fox.